My Journey to Lose 200 Pounds

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This last week was a good week for me. Work went well, exercise happened, and my food was on point. Oh, and I finished reading the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy. So, just wanted to tell you about my week!

Food

As I’ve said, I’ve been eating less meat recently and have been enjoying vegetarian lunches for the past month or so, as well as mostly vegetarian breakfasts and snacks. Here’s some of what I ate last week.

Breakfast was either bran flakes cereal with skim milk and egg whites with ketchup OR a frozen Jimmy Dean omelet with 2 slices of whole wheat toast and skim milk.

My vegetarian lunches last week were either tomato, basil, mozzarella salad with roasted garlic focaccia OR my new favorite sandwich, a mashed white bean sandwich with avocado, red onion, and leaf lettuce served with canned carrots or green beans.

This white bean sandwich is so simple. Here’s the recipe!

White Bean Avocado Sandwich

-1can great northern beans, drained, rinsed

-1 tbs olive oil

-1 or 2 tbs fresh lemon juice

-salt and pepper to taste

-1 small avocado, halved

-sliced red onion

-lettuce of choice (I used green leaf)

-sandwich bread (I used sliced focaccia)

Instructions: (Makes 2 Sandwiches)

Put the white beans in a bowl. Mash them so that half are mashed and half are still sorta whole. Add in olive oil, lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir well. Serve on lightly toasted sandwich bread with 1/2 of an avocado scooped out, sliced red onion, and leaf lettuce. Eat and enjoy.

Dinners last week were either a basil, mozzarella naan bread pizza with turkey pepperoni and a side salad OR a frozen Indian dinner from Trader Joes OR mini chicken tacos with a side salad.

I loved the dinners this past week because they were all simple. Assembled and cooked within 10-15 minutes.

For snacks last week, I had my usual V8 with 1/2 of the almond coconut kind bar for my first snack and 2 1/2 tbs of Trader Joes Greek yogurt spinach dip with almond thin crackers for my second snack.

Exercise

This week, I exercised 4 1/2 times from last Sunday to today. Last Sunday, I walked around my moms neighborhood with her for almost 45 minutes. On Tuesday night after work, I walked 2.10 miles and it took about 30 minutes. The half comes from Wednesday, where I walked around my apartment complex for about 10 minutes with my dog. I was pretty tired because I was staying up late every night to read to finish 50 Shades.

I decided to not stay up too late Thursday so that I wouldn’t be too tired to exercise Friday night. Friday, I walked for almost 2 miles for about 30 minutes total. Friday felt like a good workout and I was sweating and exhausted after I was done, but felt great!

For today’s exercise, my best friend had the idea to go hiking. We have an area here called Turkey Mountain, so we decided to go and it was such a blast. We hiked about about 45 minutes, which didn’t even feel like 45 minutes. Halfway through the hike, we came upon a lake and thought it’d be the perfect exercise selfie.

Here are the stats from today’s hike.

The BFF and I are saving money to go to Mexico next year, so we’re trying to eat healthy and get in shape for our trip. We’ve decided that when we hang out, we’re going to do free/cheap things and also try to exercise instead of our usual eating out. Next week we plan to go rent bikes and bike around the city. Can’t wait!

Some of the advice I got from my nutritionist really helped me with my eating this week. I no longer am looking at meals as cheat meals. If I’m going to go out to eat, I’m going to budget it into my calorie goal. I had to do this twice this weekend. Once, I went out to lunch with my mom this weekend, so I cut back calories from breakfast so I could afford the meal calorie wise. And of course we made a healthy decision and went to Zoe’s Kitchen, so that made it easier. I had the grilled chicken pita with feta slaw and no mayo pasta salad.

The second time I ate out, it wasn’t as healthy. I had the chicken and waffles and ate about half of the chicken and half of the waffles. We also had an appetizer of sweet potato fries with spicy caramel and bacon. Super delicious! The restaurant doesn’t have their nutrition information displayed but I used my fitness pal and ended up saying the meal was about 1000 calories, which only put me over my calorie goal by 100 since I budgeted for it that day.

Yes, I felt guilty for the meal, but I also had exercised the night before and was planning to exercise Sunday, which I did, so I feel like I worked some of it off. Either way, I’m not going to let it get me down.

Overall, last week went great! I’m excited for this week also to be filled with healthy foods, fun exercise, and and weight loss! I’ll be weighing this week sometime, so I hope to have a new weight update soon.

As promised, I’m back with another blog post mainly dedicated to talking about my nutritionist appointment. I really wanted to share sort of what I’ve learned, what we talk about, what we do in our sessions, etc. So, let’s get started!

I’ve been going to my nutritionist for about 4 months now. She’s my accountability person. I willingly tell her the truth about everything food related. She’s my safe place, someone who I know won’t judge me. If I ate 2 cheeseburgers from McDonald’s for a snack, I can tell her knowing that I won’t get a “dammmmnnnnnnn” look. You know, that look when you say something crazy and people look at you like “dammnnnnnn.” And I really did eat 2 cheeseburgers for a snack one day and I felt 100% ok with telling her. If im not honest with her, she’s going to know. She weighs me every session so might as well tell her EVERYTHING.

So like I said, she weighs me every time at the very beginning of our session. Then she uses this cool machine that measures my body fat % or something along those lines. Not too sure because those results aren’t something we look at, but she keeps track of that number so she can track my progress. As of Friday, I’ve lost just over 25 pounds since I started seeing my nutritionist.

Next thing we do is go over my food log. She’ll look at everything I’ve logged over the past 2-3 weeks since I saw her last. If something pops out to her, she’ll ask me about it. A couple months ago, she saw pizza and waffles for dinner on the same day and was like, “Are pizza and waffles together a thing now?” I just answered, “Nope.” And then we talked about why I made that choice, or did I eat the pizza, but was still hungry so went for a waffle, or how was I feeling when I went back for more food.

In this most recent session, I told her about the weekend where I ate my feelings because I was sad. She asks about how I was feeling and what coping mechanisms did I use to feel better. We went over coping skills that are helpful, such as reaching out to a friend, doing something that’s a distraction, or writing in your journal. I did all of these things after my bad weekend of eating and I was self medicating and didn’t even realize it. I thought that was pretty cool! There have been times in the past where I’m not sure I would have been able to get myself out alone, but I did it this time (with the help of the BFF) and that was a great feeling.

Every session is something new. One week we talked about the different fats and which ones are good and bad. Another week we talked about the size of each meal and how to space out my calories. One thing we found out was that I was hungry in the evenings. So, she had me bulk up my breakfast so that I eat 500 calories for breakfast and it has helped so much! My nutritionist is great with finding out exactly what works for ME. Also, I can’t say enough how grateful I am for health insurance. My nutritionist appointments are covered 100% on my insurance, which makes me able to go see her.

More recently, we’ve started talking about exercise. She never pushed me to start. She never got mad at me if I didn’t exercise. But one day, I just started walking every now and then with my mom, which led to me exercising on my own. We set a goal for me to try to exercise 2-3 times a week for 30 minutes. Last week, from Sunday-Saturday, I exercised 4 times. Part of me is getting out there and walking because it makes me feel good to move my body and part of me is going because I have someone to hold me accountable and I want her to see me accomplish the goals we’ve set for myself.

Another great thing I’ve learned from my nutritionist is how I look at “cheat meals.” I no longer plan cheat meals. The reason being this….I got a pizza one Friday night or my cheat meal. So in my brain, I was going to eat 4 of the 8 slices. For the other 4 slices, I was going to eat 2 slices and a salad on Saturday and Sunday so that I still stayed within my calorie budget, which I did. What I found was so interesting is that I was just fine eating 2 slices and a salad for the days I hadn’t labeled as cheat meal days. So if I could have just eaten 2 slices on Friday, I wouldn’t have gone over my calorie goal.

Instead what my nutritionist told me is that she understands I’m not going to eat perfect 100% of the time. Really, I’m going to be eating great 80% of the time and 20% of the time will be meals like the pizza, where it’s not the best option. With this, I’ll still be in my calorie goal so there are technically no cheat meals. I just found this way of thinking really clicked, and although I’m still working on it, I’m no longer looking at meals as cheat meals. Obviously I’m not perfect, but I’m improving with this way of thinking, because this IS a lifestyle change and I want this weight loss to stick.

Last thing I talk about with my nutritionist is my hobbies. I recently discovered I really don’t have any, but that’s something I’m looking to change and I’m currently working on. I’ll talk deeper about this in another post once I see some changes in how I spend my free time.

I did recently decide to start reading again, which is something I’ve always loved. I’m one to jump on the bandwagon dead last. The Twilight series? I started reading it after the first movie came out to rent. I absolutely loved that series. So, I finally gave in and started reading 50 Shades of Grey. I LOVE it! It’s seriously so good! Which reminds me, I gotta go! I’m in the middle of a chapter and I need to see what happens next.

I’ll leave you with a few pictures of some meals and snacks I enjoyed last week.

Trader Joe’s chicken tenders, TJs zucchini fries, and canned carrots.

TJs Belgium waffles, TJs chicken sausage links, and lite syrup.

Pineapple…yum!

The most delicious Kind bar! I have a roasted jalapeño one I can’t wait to try this week!

This week has been a great week! I’ve exercised twice on my own, my eating has been good, and I’m seeing results! My weight has gone down and I’m also starting to feel better overall.

As for the exercise, I’ve walked twice this week (so far) on my own for 30 minutes each time and went 2 miles each time. I was sweaty and tired afterwards and it felt like a great workout, even though I was just walking.

I normally had an excuse to not exercise during the week. For example, “I get off work late” or “It’s too dark outside when I get off work” or “I don’t want to get up early.” I could go on. But for some reason as I was driving home on Monday, the sky was dark but I could still see the very tail end of the sunset, the weather was just right, and I was motivated to get outside and move. Also, walking outside is free! And I’m cheap so that’s a double bonus.

My eating this week has also been good. I’ve been eating vegetarian for my lunches almost everyday. I’ve had black bean nachos and brown rice spaghetti with marinara and Parmesan cheese for lunch this week, both with a small canned veggie such as green beans or carrots.

I’ve found that cutting out some meat out of my diet has helped my stomach. I used to get an upset tummy after eating almost any meal, and now I don’t have that problem. So, I think I’ll stick with vegetarian lunches. I’m excited to share with you next week what I’ll be eating for my vegetarian lunches. It’s going to be good!

Dinners this week have consisted of PF Chang’s frozen Chinese food over some vegetable fried rice from Trader Joes. Seriously, it’s sooo easy and tasty. Love that dinner! Also, I had some frozen precooked chicken tenders and frozen mashed potatoes from Trader Joes. Are you seeing a theme here? I love easy and frozen foods that are convenient for me to just heat up after work. Everybody has what works for them!

The last thing I wanna mention is my weight. I’m down to 330.9 pounds. That’s almost 5 pounds down this week! Is it weird that I wanna be all old school here and say “raise the roof!” I think I have been watching too much “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.”

Well, that’s all I have for you today! I go to my nutritionist tomorrow morning so I’ll definitely be blogging about that this weekend. She’s always got something new to teach me that I can share with you.

I did it! I successfully got under 300 pounds! I couldn’t be more excited about this!

So what’d I do to celebrate? Well, I went to jazzercise class and then, I ate. I ate pretty poorly this weekend. I had pizza on Saturday for lunch and also a dessert after the pizza. Then today for fathers day, I made filet mignon with big baked potatoes and asparagus for lunch.

Although the steaks and potatoes were delicious, I definitely ate more than I should have.

My dinners both nights over the weekend weren’t too healthy either.

So, I’m hoping I don’t get on the scale in the morning and see a 3– something number, but if I do, I wouldn’t be surprised.

Luckily, I’ve got some delicious, healthy lunches and dinners planned this week to get me back on track so you can expect to see a “what a ate” post later in the week.

The next thing I wanted to tell you about is that I have the bestest BFF in the world and she brought me back a few of my favorite things from Trader Joes this weekend!

Starting from the left, the coconut oil spray is awesome! I use it all the time instead of using olive oil. I had her bring me back 3 cans of it because I love it so much.

The second item is mango voodoo hot sauce. It’s not from Trader Joes, but Megan actually got it for me while she was in Louisiana. I’m excited to try this hot sauce because it has no sugar, no fat, and no calories. Woohoo! I’m a huge fan of mango and spicy stuff so Megan knows me well. I think I’ll use it on some griddle grilled chicken this week. Yummy!

I got the marinara sauce because I just didn’t feel like making my own this week. I wanted to be able to just open up a jar and pour it on my spaghetti squash. Call it lazy. Call it convenience. But hey, it’s what’s working for me.

Next thing is the edamame hummus. This stuff is weird (but in a good way) because it definitely tastes like hummus. It uses all the flavorings of hummus such as tahini, lemon juice, and garlic but it’s puréed edamame instead of garbanzo beans. The only bad thing about it is that it has 90 calories for 2 tablespoons. So as long as I eat it with a vegetable and not chips, it should be an ok snack.

The voodoo kettle chips are also something Megan picked up for me in Louisiana. I ate these last night and they were great! They had a nice spicy kick to them with just a hint of sweet. Yum!

The Thai lime and chili cashews from Trader Joes are sooooooo good! They’re a little spicy and nutty and just downright addicting. If you haven’t tried these and you like Thai flavors, you should definitely go out and get yourself some. You won’t be dissapointed!

The last thing is the PB&J chocolate bar.

It’s a chocolate bar filled with peanut butter and jelly. Does it get any more delicious than that? I can easily portion this out to get 4 servings out of it. One bite of something sweet usually hits the spot for me. Even though it’s about 200 calories for the whole bar (or 50 calories for a square of it) it’s worth it to me. 🙂

Thanks again Megan for picking up all of these great things for me! You’re the best!

The third thing I wanted to talk about is my new kitchen table I got. I haven’t had a dining table since I moved into my current apartment which was about 2 years ago. So, it’s nice to finally have one again! I can actually eat dinner at the table, not that I do, but I could! 🙂

Isn’t it pretty? And I’ve got my painting from Pinot’s Palette hanging on the wall in the background. My apartment just looks so homey now with the dining table and the art work hung. Love it!

I was waiting to give a weight update because I was really hoping I’d be under 300 pounds this week. But…..I’m not………yet.

Before I tell you my latest weight, first I wanna tell you about the exercise I’ve been doing. As you know, I joined jazzercise a couple weeks ago. I didn’t think I’d go to class more than once a week, but I love it so much that I made time to go. I went to jazzercise class Saturday morning, Sunday morning, and Tuesday morning the past 2 weeks.

I’m really proud of myself for getting up early and going to workout on Tuesdays, which is the only day that I could sleep in because I don’t have to work until 10:15. But, I enjoy the exercise so I make myself get up early anyways.

Ok now back to my weight. My latest weight is 300.4. A half of a freaking pound is all I need to lose to hit my goal of being under 300! I have been stuck on 300.4 since Saturday (5 days). So when Tuesday came around, I was pumped to go to jazzercise because I thought it would for sure get me under 300. Unfortunately we had a substitute instructor who needed to be somewhere so we had a short class. But she also changed it up and we did toning and sculpting. NO cardio. I was totally bummed!

Needless to say, the next morning I weighed myself and I was at 303.6. Muscles may be nice and all, but I’ve got a goal to hit, so that toning and sculpting class annoyed me a little.

Today, I weighed in at 301.6. I guess the muscle mass is going down so we’ll see if I can get under 300 pounds this week.

One thing I learned about myself this week in relation to exercise is that if I don’t get up early and exercise in the morning, I’m probably not going to do it. Also I learned that I really need that push of going to a class and having someone show me or tell me what to do. If left alone to exercise, I never burn nearly as many calories as I do when I’m being instructed. The final thing I learned about myself in relation to exercise is that I enjoy it. I know I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, I LOVE jazzercise.

Well, I better go ahead and get to bed. I didn’t make the best choices today food-wise so I’m attempting to get up and go to the 5:30 AM jazzercise class tomorrow morning. Goodnight!

I don’t know why weekends are so much harder to eat healthy. I guess it’s because I don’t have a set routine on the weekends. I sleep in later. Or I am out and about running errands. Or I’m hanging out with my family. I eat out more on weekends, and this weekend was no exception.

I had BBQ on Friday night. I got the beer can chicken with vinegar based slaw. I decided since those 2 items were pretty healthy, I could have one unhealthy side, and I chose the house made chips with peach ketchup.

Saturday, I took my mom out for lunch for mothers day after we enjoyed facials at the salon. We went to an Asian fusion restaurant where I had Pho. I had been wanting to try Pho for a while now. It’s a delicious broth filled with rice noodles and thinly sliced beef. It comes with a plate of add ins such as bean sprouts, cilantro, basil, lime, and jalapeños. You can also add hoisin and sriracha. Pho is amazingly delicious! The broth is super flavorful and it’s definitely something I can’t wait to have again.

Since I felt like I’d eaten a lot on Friday and Saturday, I made myself a taco salad for dinner Saturday night, filled with lettuce, tomato, onion, a little cheese, salsa, and ground turkey taco meat.

Sunday, my step-dad made lunch for mothers day. We had ribs, green beans, sliced tomatoes, corn on the cob, small baked potatoes, and my Asian coleslaw. I felt like for the most part, this was not too bad of a meal choice.

For dinner on Sunday, I was tired and knew I had a long Monday ahead of me, so I picked up some pre made sushi to have for dinner.

Monday’s eating wasn’t good. I had a spicy turkey with cranberry crepe for lunch with a side salad. I also had a Thai flavored gelato. It was mango, pineapple, and coconut. It was delicious and tasted like I was on the beaches of Mexico.

For dinner I had a pizza from Top That Pizza.

After all of this eating out over the weekend, I was dreading the scale this morning. Even though I spent about 6 hours cleaning my apartment yesterday (which I’d say was a good workout) I still gained weight. Not that I was expecting to lose weight or anything, it just showed me how easily the weight can go back on. And by easily, I mean EASILY. That was definitely a wake up call, one I desperately needed.

My last weigh in was on April 23rd where I weighed in at 310.6 pounds. It feels like I’ve been around that same weight forever.

I weighed in today at 306 pounds. At first I thought, “Well bummer, I’m stuck.” Then I realized, that’s 4.6 pounds lost in 13 days. I’ll take it!

It is definitely an adjustment getting used to losing the weight slower than I did in the beginning. But I’m so close to my short term goal of hitting 299 pounds that I am going to do whatever it takes to get there.

I’ve recently been reading this book by Bob Harper (one of The Biggest Loser trainers) called The Skinny Rules. He has 20 basic rules that he says you should follow if you want to lose weight and keep it off. I’m going to try my best to follow as many rules as I can. In my current diet plan, I’m actually following many of his rules already.

Here are some of the rules I wasn’t doing, but I am now going to attempt to follow.

First rule is drink a full glass of water before every meal. This one should be pretty easy. I bought some bottled water for my car so I’ll always have water handy.

Second rule is eat apples and berries every single day. I’m really not a huge fan of fruit so I haven’t been eating any. So to get my berries in, I’m going to eat plain Cheerios for breakfast with 1/2 a cup of sliced strawberries in my cereal. For the apples, I bought pre sliced individual apple packets and I’ll have those for my snack everyday.

Third rule is no more added sweeteners, including artificial ones. I’m already on day 6 of no diet pop or artificially flavored beverages, and I’m surviving just fine. I’ve been drinking unsweetened tea, water, and milk. With my food choices, I’m trying to choose fresh meats and vegetables, and cut out any processed foods so that it will be easier cutting out artificial sweeteners.

Fourth rule is eat 30-50 grams of fiber a day. I haven’t been adding up how much fiber I’ve been eating, but I’m going to start this week just so I can see how much fiber I am eating and adjust it from there.

Fifth rule is no carbs after lunch. I’m instead going to go with no carbs after afternoon snack. I like my skinny pop popcorn for a snack because it keeps me full until dinner. For dinner, I will load up on veggies, protein, and a little healthy fat.

The Skinny Rules is a great read with a lot of good information. For the most part, I’m going to be following all 20 of Bob Harper’s rules. I’ve learned quite a few things so far from the book. After reading the section about artificial sweeteners, I instantly decided to stop drinking diet pop. Maybe the book will help you out as well, so I highly recommend everyone read it!